In the first two parts of this three part series we have gone deep on how to become known and liked by buyers. That is all very well, but if they don’t trust us, they won’t buy our solutions if they can avoid it. If you are in an industry where the supply side is totally restricted and the buyers have to compete for supply, then lucky you. I have never had that luxury and I would guess 99.9% of salespeople are in my boat.
How do we get buyers to trust us? The answer is in our kokorogamae. This is our true intention. What is in our hearts as salespeople? Are we focused on what we get, our commissions, our new car, our benefit, making our targets to get the Sales Director’s jackboot off our neck? Or are we focused on the buyer’s interests. Is our success wrapped up inside the buyer’s success? One of my favourite sales trainers is Zig Ziglar, whose famous insight is: “you can get everything you want in this life, if you will just help enough other people get what they want”. Zig has passed away already, but he hit on a profound building block of gaining buyer trust with his philosophy.
Speaking of which, do you have a sales philosophy? Have you set out your approach to sales, to establish the guardrails and boundaries of your actions and behaviours. Of course, a wonderful sales philosophy is easy to embrace. Remember though that everyone has a plan until they are punched in the mouth. In sales, that means not selling and if you are on 100% commission that means not eating. Even if you are not on 100% commission, it means getting fired and having to find another job.
Are you pushing certain solutions to buyers because they are the group with the highest commissions for you? Are you putting your personal interests ahead of those of the buyer? When things are going well, then all of these issues can be eliminated, but when you are hungry and can’t support your family, then your own rules get thrown out the window and you become desperate.
There is nothing worse in the business world than a desperate salesperson. They will damage two brands in perpetuity. One will be the company brand. They will create distrust of their company because why would an honest, reputable, reliable company tolerate dodgy salespeople? The other brand is their personal brand as a businessperson. I remember a salesperson relating to me how he had to keep going to new towns in the US to find new clients, because the quality of his solution was bad and once the buyers discovered that fact, he couldn’t show his face in that town again. That was a companywide issue, but I silently asked myself why did he keep working for that dodgy company? What was his kokorogamae as a salesperson?
In another case, we were talking with a well-known businessperson here in Tokyo, about a possible collaboration, when up popped this note in my social media feed; “Has anyone seem Mr. X, because he owes me money?”. Wow! I knew the author of this social media post, so I went online and checked Mr. X out a bit more thoroughly and what a tangled mess I found. So many accusations of no trust and broken trust that it was scary. Needless to say, we stopped the talks with him immediately. What was his kokorogamae? His reputation never recovered from this incident.
My point of view is that if you are not making it in sales, then get out and leave the profession to the rest of us, who know what we are doing and who have the correct kokorogamae. All that bad actors do is pollute our profession and make it that much harder for the vast majority of us to win the trust of our buyers.
When you have the interest of the buyer at the forefront of your approach to the deal, then you will always make the right decisions. Your will take the long term view and try and build up a reputation of being trusted and always dealing fairly with everyone. That personal brand is worth a fortune and only an idiot would do anything to destroy it.
It takes a lot of consistency to build it and this is where having a correct kokorogamae comes in to guide us, when we have to make tough decisions. If we are in a transactional business model then maybe none of this matters. But seriously, is that the type of sales life we want? Don’t we want to have a solid book of repeat business, with buyers who trust us and who appreciate our kokorgamae?
We all know what is the right thing to do. We have to make a choice about whether we are going to defend that approach, against all of the pressure and temptations which will arise or not. Yes, sometimes we will make less money on a sale. Yes, sometimes we will leave money on the table in a sale. But if our mindset is long-term, then we can amortise these occasions against a long successful career in sales. We will benefit a lot more from being the choice of partner by our buyers, because they know we are honest, can be trusted and we always have their interests as our first priority.
Where do you locate your kokorogamae – your true intention?
In Part One, we went deep on the KNOW Factor in sales and today we turn to why we need to be likeable. Actually, do we need buyers to like us? Maybe not in every case, but it doesn’t hurt does it? As a buyer yourself, would you rather deal with someone you like, rather than a person you didn’t like? We will all prefer to work with people we like, but what makes us likeable?
Some clients we get on with like a house on fire and others not so much. In my case, I want to turn all of my clients into my friends, and I want a lifetime relationship with all of them. Does it always work out that way? Of course not, but that doesn’t mean I should stop trying for that outcome.
We tend to be most comfortable with people who are like us, who have similar interests and who are easy to talk to. To get on well with others we need to know how they work. None of this is an accident, by the way. We are constantly sorting through the people we meet to find those who are the most similar to us. This is the easiest group for us to deal with.
The problem comes from dealing with the rest of the population, who are not like us. There are four basic personality styles we need to be aware of, to help us understand how we should communicate and work with different types of clients. We want to capture all of the business available and not just a share based around our comfort. What if we can make buyers who are nothing like us feel quite comfortable in dealing with us? Won’t that open the door to doing more business and isn’t that what we want?
To do all of this we have to make two decisions when we meet buyers. The first decision is to place them on a horizontal scale of whether they are highly assertive or not. If they are assertive we place them on the right of that scale. If they are not assertive, we locate them on the left side. How do we tell? If they have strong views on a subject and readily state their opinion, they are assertive. If they rarely venture their opinion and seem passive, then they are less assertive.
The other decision is on a vertical scale, regarding whether they are outcome driven on the bottom of the scale or more interested in people on the top of the scale. How do we tell which one they are? If they talk about KPIs, ROI, targets, goals, etc., then they are going to be results oriented. If they talk about how to get the team to work well together and how to build a strong culture etc., then they will be people oriented. This locates them on the top of the scale.
This gives us a four-quadrant frame to understand better who we are talking to. Amiables are top left. They are less assertive and very people oriented. When we meet them, we should be talking about how the solution we are offering will positively impact their people. We should take our time, have a cup of tea and reduce our voice strength and body energy when we are with them.
I was supposed to give the new guy a brief about my Division, when he joined the firm. I started out explaining the detail and he immediately diverted me to talk about people we both knew. I never did brief him on what my division did, because he spent the whole time talking about people – definitely an Amiable.
Smile when you talk to them and be friendly. Give them honest, sincere appreciation. Make it real and not flattery. If you mention some positive attribute back it up with proof, so that they know it is real and not some dodgy salesperson snake oil. We should not cut them off or finish their sentences when they are talking and we should encourage them to do as much talking as possible. Try to be genuinely interested in them. We should use their name when we are talking to them - just don’t overdo it.
The direct opposite type is bottom right in the frame - the Driver, with which I am very familiar! They don’t care about your smiles, because they are results and outcome oriented and have little time for small talk. They want to get down to business and hear about the outcomes they can expect. “Time is money” is their mantra, so don’t waste their time wanting to have a cup of tea together and get to know each other. Be high energy, strong in voice and body language.
If that is not your natural play, then you have to switch it up when you are with them or you will just irritate them. Now that is not the position a seller wants to find themselves in. Be strong and get straight into the three reasons why they should buy your solution, the concrete measurable results this will bring and then get the hell out of their office. They like that.
I was in a sales meeting with a foreign executive, newly arrived in Japan, talking to him for the first time. As he joined me while I was waiting in the meeting room, I began to engage him in some typical small talk. After five seconds of this, he cut me off very abruptly and said , “let’s get down to business”. That told me straight away he was a Driver and I knew I had to be quick, concise, confident and assertive with him. We did the deal for training for his leaders in fifteen minutes in that meeting, because he was a busy man and had other things to do. A classic Driver.
Never criticise the competition, the government or the weather to them. Instead, always be positive and upbeat. Use their name, because that is music to their ears. Make them feel important, but do it sincerely. They are usually powerful people with a lot of confidence and often big egos. Get them to talk about themselves, because that is a favourite subject. Talk in terms of their interests and cut everything else out of your conversation.
Work on supplying what they want and keep that conversation tight. Don’t keep adding details, because they are interested in outcomes not getting bogged down in the weeds. Superfluous details just dilute your key messages. Don’t bother complementing them to get into their good books. They don’t need you approbation or any one else’s for that matter. They just dismiss it as propaganda and pap. They are inwardly directed and emotionally independent.
Bottom left is the Analytical. They are not demonstrative and can be rather quiet. Your dynamic salesperson energy needs to be toned right down and you should mirror their body language as much as possible. Speak quietly and be circumspect in what you say. They love numbers to three decimal places, want proof, testimonials, evidence and lots and lots of data. They don’t care much about people, but they do care about numbers, so come bearing lots of numbers for them. Try to get them talking, but don’t expect them to share much about themselves. Don’t bother flattering them, they are not interested in what you think. Bring proof to back up what you are saying.
Top right are the Expressives. They are big picture people, who don’t like masses of detail. They are usually high energy and we have to match that energy. They like people and enjoy talking, so smile and get them talking about themselves – a favourite subject. They appreciate honest, sincere appreciation, because it agrees with their own positive, confident self-image. Use their name, because that is a sound they like. Make them feel important, but avoid anything which smacks of flattery, because that insults their intelligence.
We are simultaneously more than one of these styles. I am a Driver, but when I am selling, leading or training, I move up to the Expressive personality type. When I am looking at the results forecast and the P&L, I move across to the Analytical. In my case, I rarely wander into Amiable territory though.
We cannot just work well with people who are the same personality style as us, because that means we are missing out on three quarters of our buyers. We have to migrate our communication delivery to other styles’ preferences, depending on who we are dealing with. Does that mean we will suffer severe psychological problems and become schizophrenic? No! We keep our own individual style within ourselves, but we learn to speak the languages preferred by the other styles. We stay the same, but we change the language we use, depending on who we are talking to.
As human beings, we all like people who are more like us, those who have similar ideas and interests. As salespeople, we have to be flexible and quickly understand who is in front of us and then change our communication and behaviour to suit. Is this deceitful? No, we are just adapting how we do things, to how they like things done. We still offer the same wonderful solutions, but we change the way we explain the solutions to a format that they can easily accept.
To be liked by buyers, we need to understand where they are coming from and meet them there.
In Part Three we will look at how to be trusted by your buyers.
We have all heard this bromide about Know, Like and Trust in sales, but have we really deeply explored what it means in today’s post-Covid business climate? Over the next three contributions, I am going to go deep on these three aspects of sales.
The Marketing Department will work on promoting the brand, but it very rare that they ever promote individual salespeople. Let’s assume they won’t be spending any money on us and so we are on our own. Grant Cardone is a really hard driving, hard core American sales trainer who I like, but who I know would be a disaster in Japan. Nevertheless, he makes a very good point when he says in sales we are all invisible. This is the “know” problem. How can people buy from us, if they have never heard of us.
During Covid, the entire networking apparatus just broke down. Participating in online events, we could see people trapped in their tiny little boxes on screen, but we couldn’t connect with them. What a frustrating time that was in the sales profession. Fortunately, networking at live events is now back in fashion. Are you making the most of this opportunity? This is such a great chance to meet people and make a personal connection directly with buyers and allow us to set up a sales call with them. Within ten seconds you should be able to tell if this person is a prospect or not. If they are not, then go find someone who is. It is time to get back out there and “work the room”.
Cold calling was a nightmare too. The decision-makers were camped out at home and we didn’t have the foresight to collect their mobile numbers prior to the pandemic. That meant a call to the general number was the only alternative. Astonishingly, many firms I called hadn’t mastered the logistics of remote work. They had a central phone number, but no one was picking up the phone. What a mess. Even if you rang the central number and managed to speak with a human being, they were savage beasts, hell bent on getting rid of salespeople.
They are still savage beasts post-Covid and getting through to buyers is still tough, tough, tough. Target the person you want to connect with and send them a package by mail and that same junior person who was blocking your call from getting through will diligently place that parcel on their desk for you. Existing clients are always the backbone of most sales efforts, because finding new clients is so difficult. That doesn’t mean we should give up on cold calling though. As I said, we should carefully target who we think we can help and sniper-like, focus on connecting with them.
Social media is another dimension where we can become known. Where is the attention focus in Japan for your buyers? Finding out this type of general information would be straightforward you would think, but across the various sources, the discrepancies in reported numbers are just astonishing. I honestly don’t know who to believe, but according to humblebunny February 2023’s 8th edition, the order of ranking of monthly users in Japan is YouTube (102m), Line (92m), Twitter (59m), Instagram (49m), Facebook (26m), TikTok (18m), Pinterest (9m), and LinkedIn (3m).
This is where your clients potentially have their attention, but do you know which platforms they visit? Also, what about you - where can you be found? Are you using the same platforms as your buyers? Think about who is your target market, which platforms are they using and most importantly, what is your presence on those platforms? Are you just a consumer of other people’s content and not a creator for these platforms? Does that demarcation make any sense, if you want people to know who you are?
As a creator, which mediums are going to get you in front of your potential clients. Can you produce text content which marks you out as an expert in your field? Can you get your text content on to platforms to distinguish yourself from your competitors? Even if you cannot do this easily, AI has the capacity to assist and it is very fast. The danger is that at this stage in AI’s development, the content can easily become rather generic. That is why if you can add your secret sauce, your special spice, to help you to stand out in your fellow AI dependent crowd.
Can you produce video? Absolutely. Everyone has a high-quality camera in their mobile phone today, so the barriers to video production have really come down. Video is good, because we can see you and we can more easily connect with you. We feel like we can know you. What about audio? The soundtrack can be easily stripped out of video and bingo, you now have an audio version of the same content. Or you could create a podcast and have your guests provide the majority of the IP and you just add your two cents worth.
Do you have to be handsome and beautiful and sound fantastic for these mediums? Many people won’t do video or audio, because they lack confidence in how they look and sound. Is that you? Think about rock musicians? Are they all gorgeous and good looking with great voices? Mostly no, but they still sell millions of albums. I like Sting, John Lennon and Bob Dylan and do they all have great voices? Handsome? Not really. So we don’t have to be self-conscious about how we look and sound thus limiting ourselves in terms of becoming creators for our audience of buyers. If the content is compelling, people will ignore how you look and sound.
It is time to network, cold calling and maximise the use of social media. How else are you going to get known?
In the next edition we are going to look at how to be LIKED in sales.
AI has opened the floodgates to allow any idiot to create content. If content marketing is an important vehicle for promoting your credibility in business, then be concerned. Most content is currently created by people who are literate, that is, they can write the pieces themselves.
One notable exception is Gary Vaynerchuk and I am a big fan. He is a prolific creator of content, including best-selling books and readily admits he cannot read or write well. However, he is really able to talk and as we say in Australia, “he can talk under wet concrete with a mouth full of roofing nails”. He has others transcribe his comments and clean up what he says. This then becomes his output in text format.
A funny irony is that he doesn’t read his own text when he records the audio versions for his books. He basically speaks the book again, so that the two versions are never the same. Anyway, his “speaking” idea to create content is not a bad one, if writing is not your forte.
There are no longer barriers to entry for text content because of AI. At the moment, anyone can command the machine to produce content for them and they can upload this as their own work. Well, we had this before didn’t we, when people were using ghost writers. I remember reading a really good article by an Aussie guy I knew here in Tokyo. Let’s call him Mr. X. I was surprised by the quality. Frankly, I didn’t think he was that smart or that articulate. In fact, he wasn’t. He paid a professional to write the piece for him and then he put his own name on it. The difference with AI is it is cheap, fast, prolific and good enough to pump out standard content.
Now, if you are trying to show potential buyers that you are an expert in your field, by uploading relevant text content to social media, expect that all of your rivals will be able to do exactly the same thing using AI. In fact, expect a flood of new content into social media by your rivals. How can we differentiate ourselves in this frothy “red ocean”?
The bad news is that AI can produce generic content at scale and speed. The good news is that your rivals are all tapping into exactly the same sources for their content, so they cannot easily differentiate themselves as a consequence. It is going to be mass plagiarism on a grand scale.
To stand out from the crowd, the missing secret sauce here is “you”. When creating content, you must inject your ideas, experiences, insights, feelings, observations and examples into the text. AI cannot do this. It cannot be you at the creation point. Yes, it can write content in your style, but it still isn’t you. It didn’t see what you saw today or experience what happened to you today.
Basically, it comes down to not just our writing ability, but more importantly our storytelling craft. The stories we can tell will be what will differentiate what we are saying from the grey blob mass of AI generated sameness polluting our creator world. Perhaps you are not used to sharing things about yourself publicly. Get over that idea. We all need to personalise our content much more and that means injecting ourselves into the picture. It is easy to pontificate. I know, I do a lot of that on the subjects of leadership, sales, presentations, communication and DEI. Apart from preaching what we believe, we need to insert our stories into the content to ward off AI derived competitor pontificating.
They may be our own stories or stories from other people’s experiences. It doesn’t matter, as long as the content reflects a personal approach, something which is not generic in the slightest. This requires us to start working on collecting our stories, rather than just moving forward in an orderly manner every day. Things are happening around us all day long and we need to spend some time to capture them for use in our creative work.
Gary Vaynerchuk was very clever. He realised he was a not going to sit down and write stuff out, so he decided to capture what he was doing every day and turn this into his content, called “The Daily Vee”. He has Daniel Rock, AKA “D-Rock” follow him around all day videoing his activities. He always had D-Rock video his keynote speeches for the same reason. Behind him, there is a 30 person “Team Gary” crew who work on this content and slice and dice it to feed Gary’s social media machine. Genius.
I don’t have “Team Greggy” of thirty people to do that for me and you are probably in the same boat, but what we can do is start collecting what happens in real life. We can generate stories to add to the point of view pieces we publish. These events happen everyday, but we don’t record them and allow ourselves to access them, to add as a special spice into our content creation. These stories are items that AI cannot create, because they are your stories and you are the only one who knows about them.
To deflect the tsunami of AI generated content, which is about to consume the entire world, we need to work on how we can stand apart for the dross. Maybe in the future AI will also start generating stories based on what it sweeps up from the internet, but it still won’t have your stories from today. Maybe it can eventually capture and use your stories from the past, but we can always be one jump ahead of the machine.
Think storytelling when you are observing the world around you and make some notes as prompts to tell those stories. Start collecting them now and look for other people’s stories to tell, to make your point, like I did with Gary Vaynerchuk and Mr. X for this particular content creation. AI will homogenise everything in this field and we cannot stop it. Instead, we have to be clever and find ways of differentiating our content and keep ourselves at the forefront, so that AI and our rivals are always in our creative wake.